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dumitru

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 7, 2013
Messages
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Location
Dortmund, Germany
Hi people,
How many of you have your websites available in multiple languages?
Do you have a statistic of where your customers are coming from, and if a good % of them don't use English as their native language?
I'm pretty sure that it is beneficial to have your website translated (especially for SEO), but I'm wondering if any of you have seen this value with your own eyes (and accounts) :)
Cheers!
 
I never thought about that. But then most of mine come from a city where I live.
 
I have my website in two languages, which covers about 90% to 95% of my traffic.
 
I have a Microsoft Translator widget on my home page to translate the page into any of several languages, but of course most web browsers these days do a pretty good job of translating any page with just a click.
If I lived in a strongly bi-lingual country like Jon Sable, or closer to our southern border, I'd certainly have 2 versions of the website. But in my own situation, the translators built into the web browsers seem sufficient.
I would hate to deal with updating multiple versions of the website every time I want to make a change, which is quite often, and I sure wouldn't pay somebody to do that for me. Not enough demand for that.
 
I DID have mine translated into French. Big problem - I got e-mails in French. My high school French is not good enough to know if it was a reservation inquiry or scam/spam. Also got a lot of e-mails in German - did not even have high school to help me there. The few words that got passed down through the family would not help beyond polite phrases. NEVER again. I think it made them think I spoke/read their language. Dangerous territory for me.
 
I see no reason why most US B & B sites would need multi language. Google translator works well enough for those that MAY need it. This would be a real pain to do I think.
 
I know about Google Translator and all, but there is a problem with that: your website's content is still available in just one single language, so when people search for related terms in their own language, then your website will not rank for that.
But if you have your website let's say in German, and you have terms like "best hotel in Washington" or "our hotel is close to X attraction", then you have a chance to rank well.
So it gets down to this: non-English searches are less in volume but also they are MUCH easier to rank well for, as the competition is sometimes non-existent.
But of course if 99% of your customers are locals (same country at least), then this is not something to be considered :)
 
I know about Google Translator and all, but there is a problem with that: your website's content is still available in just one single language, so when people search for related terms in their own language, then your website will not rank for that.
But if you have your website let's say in German, and you have terms like "best hotel in Washington" or "our hotel is close to X attraction", then you have a chance to rank well.
So it gets down to this: non-English searches are less in volume but also they are MUCH easier to rank well for, as the competition is sometimes non-existent.
But of course if 99% of your customers are locals (same country at least), then this is not something to be considered :).
It is the fact I do not read nor speak another language that stopped me.
 
I know about Google Translator and all, but there is a problem with that: your website's content is still available in just one single language, so when people search for related terms in their own language, then your website will not rank for that.
But if you have your website let's say in German, and you have terms like "best hotel in Washington" or "our hotel is close to X attraction", then you have a chance to rank well.
So it gets down to this: non-English searches are less in volume but also they are MUCH easier to rank well for, as the competition is sometimes non-existent.
But of course if 99% of your customers are locals (same country at least), then this is not something to be considered :).
Indeed, 99.9% of our guests were English speaking..so no need to do multiple languages. This would be a real pain for most inns in the US.
 
For SEO purposes it might be a good idea. I'd worry the guests thought we could speak their native language. If I were traveling to Europe and saw a website in English, my assumption would be the innkeepers spoke English. Oops.
 
For SEO purposes it might be a good idea. I'd worry the guests thought we could speak their native language. If I were traveling to Europe and saw a website in English, my assumption would be the innkeepers spoke English. Oops..
This happens often actually, not just for hotels but for any business that has a website in multiple languages.
I guess one way to handle this would be to put a small notice on the Contact Us page, something like:
"Even though are site is available in German and Spanish, our custom support / reservations is available only in English".
And then, even if you get an email in a different language, you can just use Google Translate to see what the matter is, and just reply in English :)
 
For SEO purposes it might be a good idea. I'd worry the guests thought we could speak their native language. If I were traveling to Europe and saw a website in English, my assumption would be the innkeepers spoke English. Oops..
This happens often actually, not just for hotels but for any business that has a website in multiple languages.
I guess one way to handle this would be to put a small notice on the Contact Us page, something like:
"Even though are site is available in German and Spanish, our custom support / reservations is available only in English".
And then, even if you get an email in a different language, you can just use Google Translate to see what the matter is, and just reply in English :)
.
Nope. I get so much scam/spam in English that I can identify in advance to take a chance on opening myself to a worm/virus because I opened something I could not read to translate it. Gun-shy. I will pass on the internationals unless I get it in English.
 
its one of the benefits of booking.com - yes I pay 15% but it is automatically translated to the language of the customer in 18 different languages.
 
Because of our proximity to DC about 1/3 of our customers are from places other than the US and we do not offer our website in multiple languages.
We have found that most of our foreign visitors speak English well enough to navigate a reservation system. But by chance we have a Russian visitor who has been with us twice before staying here right now so I asked him his thoughts.
He said every computer he has ever used in Russia has a browser extension already installed that automatically or at a click of a button translates the site into his native tongue. I use google translate when I search for overseas stays and what he describes seems similar. My advice, if it's free, maybe. If it costs anything, pass.
 
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